Half a Loaf of Bread
by Dea-Sama
Summary: SASUxNARU.AU. They strive for peace. But peace doesn't come before war. Story of easily forgotten promises, slowly fading memories and the boy he once shared a loaf of bread with.


**Half a Loaf of Bread**

HALLO! Dea-Sama here 3

For the longest time, I had wanted to write a sasuxnaru Fanfic. I'm glad I finally did. The idea came to me after reading 'Boule de Suif' by Maupassant. If you know that story, then don't worry, HLB (Half a Loaf of Bread) has nothing in common with Boule de Suif except perhaps the tense atmosphere.

I just had the strangest urge to make Sasuke a prostitute after reading it.

Warnings and such …

AU, MalexMale and most probably Smut in the future

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

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**00 – W H A T W E D E S E R V E**

Why is the world so twisted?

Why is there so much misery and sadness in the world? Why must people suffer? No one wishes to be deprived of simple luxuries. No one deserves to live in famine and poverty. No one wants to live a life in hell. No one wants to die just because they needed to get across the road. No one wants to see their loved ones get thrown into a pit to rot. No one wants to live this way. So why are people forced into this kind of lifestyle? Why do things like war and carnage exist? Why must humans fight each other because of a simple misunderstanding?

Why is there so much suffering in the world?

War never ends.

Fighting never stops, misunderstandings are never resolved and peace is never found. The battle has been going for months without rest or an end in sight. Over thousands of people died on the battlefield, soldiers and innocents alike. The roads are paved with their rotting corpses. The cities are all destroyed and no life can be seen for miles. Everyone is hiding underground where, for a while, they were safe from all the fighting. Above ground, the sound of gunshots and roars of the canons shake the floor. The air is thick with more than just ashes, blood and gunpowder.

Every morning, they awake to the terrible quakes of the bombings. Fear engulfing them as they wonder when the roof will finally crumble down on them. They don't dare move, let alone speak. They don't dare do anything anymore. They go on for days without doing anything, only sometimes moving to pick up an insect to eat or to find a comfier place to sleep.

Once in a while, when the tension and pressure is too much for them, someone cracks and gets himself killed by leaving the safe haven of the underground. A soldier, whose eyes reflect no light, takes their limb body and throws them back underground for the crazier ones to eat.

The still moderately sane ones dare not do anything. They don't wish to live nor do they wish to die and be eaten by their former friends and family. They sit still and wait.

It has been over a year since the fighting started. Nobody remembers how life was before the war. Everything from back then seems like a far-off dream; vague and blurred. They can't even remember why all the fighting started. There are only distant images of an accidental murder, a runaway prince and a controversy. Other countries decided to take advantage of their weak state and with one thing leading to another … war broke out.

And as the months passed, all hope for the return of a peaceful life was lost.

At the edges of the now broken city was the only refuge left. But everyone knew that this was not to last. Soon, the fighting would reach their location and they too would die. When that time came, everything will be over. Everyone who had lived in the now tainted city would have died and everything would end.

"Get back here you thieving little fox!"

But there was someone in that group of pathetic excuses for humans that still had hope and refused to wait for the end to come. He decided that he'd stop the war and make everyone smile again. He'd show them all that hope was not yet lost and that they still had a chance at life.

Things are much easier said than done, however. There was no longer any food to eat or water to drink. Humans can only last so long without nutrition. All the elderly and babies have already passed on. Only kids and a few young adults remained.

But there was one way to get food. And that was to steal from the soldier's camp. Even then tough, it was hard to steal much of anything if you wanted to go unnoticed. Still, the thieving fox went and always came back with some scraps.

Nobody dared ask him to share. In the past, the orphaned fox was always resented and hated. No one would be caught dead consorting with him, not even if he had food. Even so, the child wanted to save them.

Today, the fox was luckier than usual; he had managed to snatch a whole loaf of bread. Proud of himself and his catch, the thief hurried back to his hideout within the refuge.

"I'm back!"

Earlier that day, when the child was on walk around the refuge, he found another young boy his age badly beaten and abandoned under the hole where the soldiers normally threw down the dead bodies. Strangely enough, the dark-haired boy was still alive. Surprised and panicked at once, the orphan took the boy to his hideout and tended to his wounds (which luckily weren't deadly).

When the blond fox returned with his loaf of bread, the raven-haired boy was sitting on the makeshift bed staring blankly at the wall across him. The blond sat down on the bed and tore the loaf into two pieces; handing one of them over to the other boy.

"I stole this from the bad guys! Eat up!" said the blond happily.

The other boy stared at the loaf for a while before taking it from the blond; his battered hands shaking slightly as he held it.

"Thank you."

The fox smiled; glad that the other boy even spoke to him, let alone thank him!

"I'm Naruto. What's your name?"

The dark-haired boy took a bite from the bread, chewed slowly and swallowed with difficultly; his mouth and throat unused to eating. He then stared at the loaf with strange interest again before deciding to reply. He didn't look at Naruto.

"Sasuke."

…

…

…

The next morning, the inevitable happened. The fighting finally came their way and the vibrating caused by the battles made the ground crumble down on them. The soldiers inspected the refuge and eliminated the bodies. No survivors were found.

TBC

(A/N: O Even I didn't know I was going to end the chapter like this! STAY TUNED!)


End file.
